Lahnda

Lahnda, also known as Lehndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of Western Punjabi dialects, languages and Varieties within the north-western Indo-Aryan language family. It is mainly spoken in Pakistan and among partition migrant descendants in India, which originates in areas of western Punjab region, as well as in Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Saraiki, Pahari-Pothwari and Hindko are often grouped in the Lahnda. When the partition of India occurred in 1947, many speakers of Lahnda varieties migrated to areas of eastern Punjab in India. Today the dialects of Lahnda spoken in both Pakistan and India are mixed in origin although the Lahnda dialects spoken by partition migrants in India are under threat of extinction as they are becoming absorbed by the mainstream Hindi and Majha dialects of Punjabi.

 Varieties 
Lahnda includes the following varieties: 
 Saraiki (spoken mostly in southern Pakistani Punjab by about 26 million people)
 Hindko (almost five million speakers in north-western Punjab and neighbouring regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially Hazara)
 Pahari/Pothwari (3.5 million speakers in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Azad Kashmir and parts of Indian Jammu and Kashmir)
Jhangochi (spoken in central areas of Pakistani Punjab, transitional with Majhi)
Shahpuri (spoken in central-western areas of Pakistani Punjab, transitional with Majhi)
Dhani (spoken in central-western parts of Pakistani Punjab, transitional with Majhi)
 Khetrani (20,000 speakers in Balochistan)
Ethnologue also adds the Majhi dialects transitional between Lahnda and Eastern Punjabi; these are spoken by about 66 million people.

References

Category:Punjabi language
Category:Language families of Pakistan